Zvi Kriple is a vile man who doubles as a racehorse trainer. Here is our post on him from November. Please read to the bottom.
A recent HISA ruling on trainer Zvi Kriple. (I have made slight edits in the interest of brevity and clarity, including substituting Kriple for “covered person” and Royal Honey for “covered horse.”)
“Zvi Kriple was the responsible person for Royal Honey, which was stabled at Belterra Park. On the afternoon of Aug 23, 2025, Royal Honey began to show symptoms of colic, a painful intestinal condition in horses. Without having sought veterinary aid on the 23rd, at 12:30 pm on Aug 24, Kriple made contact with Dr. Timothy Renn to seek veterinary aid. Dr. Renn informed Kriple that he was 100 miles away and was unable to return to the track to attend to the horse. He suggested several alternative veterinarians which might be able to attend to the horse in a timely manner. He further stressed the importance of having the horse seen to and that the condition, left untreated, could lead to a very painful death [for Royal].
“Dr. Renn further testified that his next contact with Kriple was at 8:30 pm on the 24th when he was told by Kriple that the horse still had not been treated by a veterinarian. In his testimony, Dr. Renn quoted another trainer who was on the call as saying that several trainers had volunteered to ship the horse to a nearby vet clinic free of charge but that Kriple refused to take advantage of those offers. Kriple testified that he left the horse unattended at 1:30 am on the 25th and that Royal Honey fell out of its stall at 3:30 am and died what Dr. Renn described would have been a very painful death.
“Autopsy results showed the cause of death was a rupture of Royal Honey’s digestive tract. It is Kriple’s testimony that, despite his best and repeated efforts over the periods of Aug 23 and 24, he was unable to find any veterinarian that would either come to the racetrack to treat the horse or receive the horse at a clinic where it could be seen and treated.
“[B]ased upon the established evidence as set forth above, the Panel has determined that Kriple has violated the rule that prohibits ‘the deprivation of necessary care, sustenance, shelter, or veterinary care’ to a Covered Horse.”
And the “sanctions”? “Kriple’s registration with HISA shall be suspended for a period of two years, commencing on Oct 28, 2025, and continuing through Oct 27, 2027.”
But wait, there’s more. This from the Thoroughbred Daily News: “Kriple was suspended by the CHRB in March of 2010 after being found guilty of animal cruelty charges related to his treatment of a pony in his care. According to a Los Angeles Daily News story dated Jan 4, 2010, Kriple was convicted by a jury of misdemeanor animal cruelty ‘after prosecutors alleged he failed to euthanize or sufficiently treat a horse at the Fairplex racetrack that suffered from a chronic hoof condition.’
“The prosecutor in the case told the Los Angeles Daily News that Kriple had a pattern of ‘extreme negligence when it comes to taking care of horses,’ and cited a 2002 case in which Kriple reportedly failed to properly care for a racehorse that suffered a fractured knee at Los Alamitos.”
Forget about a lousy two-year suspension, this horrible human being should be in jail, and, it goes without saying, should never be allowed control over any domesticated (read: helpless) animal again.
So why am I reminding you of this? Well, the 74-year-old Kriple was the trainer of record for Salty Mama at Mountaineer last night. Yes, last night. How? West Virginia has not signed on to HISA. Now to be clear, this is no endorsement of HISA, for even the appeal (to the FTC) judge said: “If anything, Mr. Kriple’s two-year suspension…seems overly lenient.” (Ohio took it one step further by stripping Kriple of his license, with a Belterra steward saying, “It is my opinion…that Mr. Kriple should never be granted a racing license, of any kind, ever again.”) No, this is more an indictment of the hellhole that is West Virginia horseracing. For shame.
We can read about this and we can talk about it, but what can we do about it? I mean within the law.
Shocker. It seems that mountaineer will literally let in the worst of the worst. Prime example, Sipp has been running horses quite a bit as of late. But THIS guy?! He’s literally allowed horses to suffer to death in front of himself. Shame on mountaineer. I worry terribly for Salty Mama.